Eating vegan in the mountains of cheese: Meribel and the 3 Valleys

Traditional alpine dishes that strike fear into the hearts of vegans on skiing and snowboarding holidays. Resorts are slowly catching up (with Alpe d’Huez getting an honourable mention for the best options found so far), but as a vegan, you still won’t be going to the Alps for the food.

Unfortunately Meribel, Courcheval and Val Thorens are no different. Most restaurants, both in town and on the mountain will do fries and a green salad. Beyond that, you’re often out of luck.

But there are a few places where you’ll get to eat a full meal. If you find others not on this list, please let me know! Le Rond PointLast visited January 2019This is one of the most popular apres-ski bars, but at lunch is also a great option for vegetarian and vegan skiers. At the fast food counter they do veggie burgers (€10), vegetable noodles (€10) and chips (€4).

Upstairs in the restaurant, the chef is happy to do the garlic bread with oil instead of butter and there was also a risotto that looked like it could be vegan. The staff are mostly English and were very accomodating, so would be happy to help mix and match.Crepe Bar in Courchevel 1850Last visited January 2019The accidental gem of the trip, this crepe bar tucked around the corner of the main lift station had fresh churros. For €4 you can get 12 hot churros and €1 extra gets you a pot of warm speculoos to go with it. That’s the best value food you’ll find anywhere in the Courchevel valley, guaranteed. Tsaretta SpiceLast visited January 2019An Indian restaurant in Meribel. Very accomodating for vegans, with a few options on both starters and mains. The starters were really great — cauliflower florets in a fruity sauce, huge onion bhajis and loads of poppadoms. Unfortunately the main courses let it down, with the masala, jalfrezi and sag aloo all tasting pretty similar with no spice and not much flavour.Overall, a bit disappointing for the price but at least different to most of the options in town.

SupernovaLast visited January 2019A recently opened organic cafe in Val Thorens, this one took some finding. Unfortunately the vegan haven we’d expected didn’t quite materialise — the only option was their dish of the day, a bland vegetable mush on rice for €15. They did also have a few sweet vegan options in the chiller.Overall, Supernova felt like an organic cafe from ten years ago that hadn’t heard veganism is cool now.

Chalet ToniaLast visited January 2019The only mountain restaurant that had something other than fries and salad. Hidden away on the side dishes was a polenta and olive plate, which turned out to be deep fried and delicious.